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... rough handling from various shipping agents is not the same as taking your own board to a gig.

Sadly, based on the posts on this forum, the risk of buying a dp and receiving a damaged in transit, unusable instrument appears to be infinitely higher for Kawai than from Yamaha, Roland, Nord, Casio or Korg, etc. who, just as 99.9% of all manufacturers of electronics, seem to have figured out how to design, manufacture and properly secure and package their products to withstand "rough handling from various shipping agents." After all, it is not rocket science.

I would think that Kawai would want to do at least as good of a job for her customers as Yamaha et. al. and actually solve long-standing problems rather than just entering into unhelpful, pedantic debates, making excuses and time and time again typing "I'm sorry, contact your dealer and/or Kawai America/Europe/etc. for a replacement or repair" on a daily or weekly basis on a public forum. It can't be cheap for Kawai or for her independent distributors and dealers to have to waste so much money on after sales service repairing and replacing all the damaged in transit products.

If I were considering buying a dp from one of the major manufacturers, having to spend weeks or months to finally get a working model might be seen as a nuisance. However, when the dp is later damaged when being transported by the user, then the risk and responsibility for the costs of repair might be placed on the shoulders of the customer. That risk and the potential costs would seem to be very high. And, that is perhaps the most important to consider difference between damage in one-time shipping in factory sealed boxes and damage in transport to regular gigs.

The Journey, I own an ES7 and I must say it was perfectly packaged and damage free (well, a little scratch in the lcd display, which had no plastic stick coverage).As I posted before, international shipping is everything but safe. Kawai has to make sure, up to a point, that their packages work fine under average conditions, beyond that it's up to assurance companies to cover the shipping damages, and those companies exist for some reason. But perhaps there's even more risk of damages when the vans/beers come into place.Now, if you prefer to keep on with your crussade...:)

The Journey, I own an ES7 and I must say it was perfectly packaged and damage free (well, a little scratch in the lcd display, which had no plastic stick coverage).

I rest my case.

Who ships lcd displays without the ubiquitous protective plastic stickers?

I'm willing to bet, long distance, based on my experience, and others on here with Kawai, that in fact there is a plastic clear cover on the display, and that the scratch is also in fact on that clear cover. The cover is usually so precisely attached and clear that it is not at all obvious it is there in the first place.

At first I didn't notice the protective plastic on the display either; apart from the fact that the display looked a little 'blurred'. However I found out that all new Kawai's are shipped with this plastic protective cover. So either it's still there, or yours didn't come with the protective sticker, which is odd...

It's a wonderful keyboard; I can't recall being this content with a music purchase in many, many years. I wrote a review for Sweetwater's site where I said that because I bought it sight unseen, I was a little nervous when it arrived - not quite buyer's remorse, but worried that I might have. Within five minutes, all I could think was "Wow... I am going to spend SO many hours sitting in front of this..."

Jesus! It had no sticker. I swear it!In fact, some days after purchasing it, I went to the store (nothing to do with this, I'm not that bad ) and tactfuly told so to the salesman (well, not that sweetly, I actually asked him if the DP I had purchased was brand new, cause it had a scratch, so maybe I'm that bad), who in a condescendent way asked me: didn't you realize that I unpacked it for you to test? And yes, he did.So...perhaps there was no sticker or perhaps it wasn't so new. Who cares, now. It works well, and the salesman was stronger than me.

Since the VPC seems to be basically the MP10 cabinet stripped of all extra's , I can imagine it may be a little empty inside compared to the MP. When stuffed with some acoustic damping material ; no problem. But when left 'open' - I can imagine it could become sort of a resonating body for the mechanical key noise. I assume this is NOT the case and all is well, but nevertheless I wondered how you perceive the keybed noise, since you're one of the first owners around. Hope the RM3-II is still one of the quietest keybeds around, also in the VPC cabinet.

JFP - there's a good, satisfying thump. And it's solid, there's no resonance at all in the body of the unit. It's certainly no louder than any other weighted keyboard I've played (and quieter than a few). Best I can describe it is "consistent". Nothing mismatches. The keybed feels and sounds exactly how I hoped it to feel and sound - an admittedly subjective judgement if ever there was one

RE: software, I'd been previously using the Native Instruments Komplete pianos, along with some more specialized libs like Imperfect Samples Braunschweig, and Soundiron's Emotional Piano. But I was curious to try one that used the custom touch curves in the VPC. I downloaded the trial of Pianoteq, which I'd never used before - I guess I'd shied away from the concept of modeled pianos in favor of the multi-gigabyte sampled ones. And as soon as I loaded up their Blüthner model, something just went "click - that's the one!". So I bought Pianoteq with the Blüthner expansion, and I've been using that 90% of the time. It's possible that one of the huge sample pianos like Ivory might beat it on pure sound (and I may try that in the future) but I'm finding Pianoteq just immensely "playable". And I like the speed of using it - pretty much "click, start playing", rather than navigating through Komplete libraries and waiting for some massive sample set to load.

Thanks for the info. Postponed my purchase till after Frankfurter Messe ; you never know...

Then I'll probably get a VPC anyway. I was thinking for the Blüthner as well, since I already have Pianoteq. NI is part of the collection too, but for touch / sound connection I guess Pianoteq will win. We'll see...

No - not particularly - I'm just curious to what will show up of any brand. Perhaps nothing , or only minor stuff, perhaps something interesting. And since it's only a few weeks wait , that'll will be possible to bridge (hardly).

I ordered the VPC1 and I am currently third in line to get it. I live in the US and I could find only two places that sell them. One is Kraft Music and the other is Sweetwater. Anyone knows of any other online retailers? I will be using the Yamaha Tyros 4 to back up the piano track as well as using it as the audio interface. I am still deciding what virtual piano program to get although I have heard the Pianoteq is a good one. DP

it's really personal preference whether you like one virtual piano or the other.

Pianoteq is free to try - just download the trial and see if you like it. The big sample libraries are normally not that easy to try out and compare. I used http://www.try-sound.com. They offer the most known libraries like the Galaxy instruments, Synthogy Ivory and Vienna Imperial. The latency does not let you really "play" the instrument, but it gives you a good impression on sound, character, resonance, etc.

I ordered the VPC1 and I am currently third in line to get it. I live in the US and I could find only two places that sell them. One is Kraft Music and the other is Sweetwater. Anyone knows of any other online retailers?

Of the larger internet retailers, I believe the VPC1 is currently only available from Kraft Music and Sweetwater, however there may also be some smaller independent retailers that carry this new model. My recommendation would be to contact Kawai America to double check the availability of this product.

If the VPC1 sells well, I am sure other piano makers will jump on this and it will drive the cost down. I wish Kawai does not use the name VPC1 because number 1 means number 2 will follow and already, I feel the VPC1 is "dated".I wonder why other big retailers online does not carry this item as so far, both retailers are on back order. DP